My Kid Is Too Big for a Stroller When I Say He Is

I've been trying to see the humor in the blog Too Big for Stroller, but it's really just left me seething. If you haven't seen it yet, you may even be featured there without knowing it. The site posts pictures of children it deems "too big" to ride in strollers, and puts a "walk" stamp over their faces. The world is then able to mock them and berate the parents for daring to let the darlings ride in a stroller. How fun?

Salon recently interviewed the site's creator Laura Miller, who, get this: doesn't even have children! Parenting is hard enough, and to add more heaps of judgment onto the role doesn't help anyone, even if you're just trying to be funny and especially if you've never tried it yourself.

Maybe I'm just being defensive. Actually, yes, I'm being totally defensive ... as far as I'm concerned, my children aren't too big to ride in a stroller until the stroller shows signs of crumpling to the ground.

My 7-year-old is just now at the point where I won't let him crawl into his sister's stroller on occasion, but only out of fear of collapse, not because I see anything wrong with him riding in it when I think the situation warrants it.

Did he ride in there all the time? No, but when it was convenient and meant not having to carry his 50-plus-pound body through an airport while running to catch a plane? Absolutely. When we visited a theme park for a 12-hour adventure and didn't want him to crumple into a heap of exhaustion before the end of the day? Yep. And once in awhile, when I needed to do some shopping without chasing him out from under racks of clothing? Guilty. I may have even given him some sugary treat to keep him occupied in there -- so there.

I'm plenty concerned about the soaring obesity rates. I don't need someone judging me based on a few minutes when the rest of our lives are filled with exercise, mostly organic fare, and a pretty damn healthy lifestyle.

The blog is nothing more than a big judgy poke at parents. With all the bravado and confidence of someone who thinks she knows it all, Miller sends out snarky little tweets like this:

when i have a baby of my own, it will be strapped to me as an infant, and then it will be walking. no middle ground.

As if that wasn't bad enough, she told Salon there's something "fundamentally un-cool" about strollers.

I mean, you could be the world's best businesswoman, but when you're pushing a stroller it just screams: "I'm a parent, this is all I am."

Really, that's what strollers say?

She is asking for so much bad child karma in her future, it's not even funny. I hope if she has children, she is blessed with triplets who run in every direction, or just one with a special penchant for sitting down in the middle of streets and sidewalks and not allowing her move more than one-tenth of a block in an hour. I wish upon her judgy in-laws, judgy neighbors, and judgy moms at the playground during her most hectic parenting moments.

Judge not Ms. Miller, because when it comes to parenting, if there's anything parents learn, it's that you can have all the plans and high-minded intentions in the world of what kind of perfect parent you will be, but when it comes down to it, you do what works.

What do you think of this site? Do you think there's a certain age at which children are too old to ride in strollers?